Through the ages men have been prone to rely upon their own individual efforts and initiative to meet difficult situations recurring in human experience. In fact, one accustomed with some success to facing these difficulties is referred to as a self-reliant person. A country numbering many such dependable ones among its population is in turn known as a self-reliant country.
The quality of dependability or trustworthiness is to be highly commended, and should be cultivated by all. But one should guard carefully and continually against being or becoming merely reliant upon a false sense of self. In this connection a well-known hymn conveys the warning, "'Tis sense that would deceive." And, surely, self-deception may be most subtle and far-reaching. In common usage, the term "self-reliance" almost exclusively refers to a dependence upon this false sense of self; though clearer thinking is coming to recognize that the sounder, more satisfactory reliance is a turning for guidance and direction to God, the one infinite divine Mind or intelligence.
Christian Science makes it abundantly clear that human affairs, to be governed rightly, harmoniously, and successfully, must be directed spiritually. They must be governed, in fact, by the one Mind or intelligence, in accordance with the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." So governed and directed, human activities of whatever magnitude and scope, and in all their applications and implications, could not fail to be righteous, harmonious, and beneficial in their results to all concerned.
